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​Forward Prize for Best Collection

2021
Winner
Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard

Shortlist
A Blood Condition by Kayo Chingonyi
A God at the Door by Tishani Doshi
Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill
Cheryl’s Destinies by Stephen Sexton
2020
Winner
The Air Year by Caroline Bird

Shortlist
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
I Want! I Want! by Vicki Feaver
FURY by David Morley
Tiger Girl by Pascale Petit
2019
Winner
Vertigo and Ghost by Fiona Benson
 
Shortlist
Noctuary by Niall Campbell
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here by Vidyan Ravinthiran
City of Departures by Helen Tookey
2018
Winner
Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Shortlist
Venus as a Bear by Vahni Capildeo
Black Sun by Toby Martinez de las Rivas
Assurances by JO Morgan
Wade in the Water by Tracy K Smith
2017
Winner
On Balance by Sinead Morrissey

Shortlist
Fourth Person Singular by Nuar Alsadir
The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx by Tara Bergin
Stranger Baby by Emily Berry
Angel Hill by Michael Longley
2016
Winner
Measures of Expatriation by Vahni Capildeo

Shortlist
The Blind Roadmaker by Ian Duhig
Consider the Women by Choman Hardi
Falling Awake by Alice Oswald
Say Something Back by Denise Riley
2015
Winner
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Shortlist
From Elsewhere by Ciaran Carson
One Thousand Things Worth Knowing by Paul Muldoon
The Boys of Bluehill by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain
Due North by Peter Riley
2014
Winner
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion by Kei Miller

Shortlist
The Whole and Rain-domed Universe by Colette Bryce
All One Breath by John Burnside
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck
I Knew the Bride by Hugo Williams
2013
Winner
Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts

Shortlist
Her Birth by Rebecca Goss
Pluto by Glyn Maxwell
Parallax by Sinead Morrissey
The Havocs by Jacob Polley
2012
Winner
PLACE by Jorie Graham

Shortlist
White Sheets by Beverley Bie Brahic
Naked Clay: Drawing from Lucian Freud by Barry Hill
Odi Barbare by Geoffrey Hill
People Who Like Meatballs by Selima Hill
2011
Winner
Cat Bone by John Burnside

Shortlist
Night by David Harsent
Clavics by Geoffrey Hill
A Hundred Doors by Michael Longley
Voices Over Water by D Nurkse
November by Sean O'Brien
2010
Winner
Human Chain by Seamus Heaney

Shortlist
Through the Square Window by Sinead Morrissey
The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson
Rough Music by Fiona Sampson
Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott
2009
Winner
Rain by Don Paterson

Shortlist
Hide Now by Glyn Maxwell
One Secret Thing by Sharon Olds
Better Than God by Peter Porter
A Scattering by Christopher Reid
West End Final by Hugo Williams
2008
Winner
The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah

Shortlist
Pure Lizard by Sujata Bhatt
Another Country by Jane Griffiths
Nigh-No-Place by Jen Hadfield
Crocodiles & Obelisks by Jamie McKendrick
Lip by Catherine Smith
2007
Winner
The Drowned Book by Sean O'Brien

Shortlist
Domestic Violence by Eavan Boland
Gift Songs by John Burnside
The Harbour Beyond the Movie by Luke Kennard
Beasts of Nalunga by Jack Mapanje
Birds with a Broken Wing by Adam Thorpe
2006
Winner
Swithering by Robin Robertson

Shortlist
Quicksand Beach by Kate Bingham
Tramp in Flames by Paul Farley
The Book of Blood by Vicki Feaver
District and Circle by Seamus Heaney
Redgrove’s Wife by Penelope Shuttle
2005
Winner
Legion by David Harsent

Shortlist
The Good Neighbour by John Burnside
A Shorter Life by Alan Jenkins
Woods Etc. by Alice Oswald
Stolen Love Behaviour by John Stammers
2004
Winner
The Tree House by Kathleen Jamie

Shortlist
Newborn by Kate Clanchy
The Strange Hours Travelers Keep by August Kleinzahler
Snow Water by Michael Longley
Corpus by Michael Symmons Roberts
2003
Winner
Breaking News by Ciaran Carson

Shortlist
Nine Horses by Billy Collins
The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig
Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw
Moy Sand and Gravel by Paul Muldoon
2002
Winner
Max is Missing by Peter Porter

Shortlist
The Ice Age by Paul Farley
Now and for a Time by John Fuller
Flight by Vona Groarke
Marriage by David Harsent
2001
Winner
Downriver by Sean O'Brien

Shortlist
The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson
The Year’s Afternoon by Douglas Dunn
Dragons by Matthew Francis
Landscape with Chainsaw by James Lasdun
2000
Winner
Conjure by Michael Donaghy

Shortlist
The Asylum Dance by John Burnside
The Donkey’s Ears by Douglas Dunn
Jizzen by Kathleen Jamie
A Smell of Fish by Matthew Sweeney
1999
Winner
My Life Asleep by Jo Shapcott

Shortlist
Samarkand by Kate Clanchy
Prince Rupert’s Drop by Jane Draycott
The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
1998
Winner
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes

Shortlist
Glass and God by Anne Carson
Zero Gravity by Gwyneth Lewis
The Yellow Book by Derek Mahon
The Breakage by Glyn Maxwell
1997
Winner
The Marble Fly by Jamie McKendrick

Shortlist
Violet by Selima Hill
Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes
Salt Water by Andrew Motion
The Clever Daughter by Susan Wicks
The Vigil by CK Williams
1996
Winner
Stones and Fires by John Fuller

Shortlist
Paleface by Charles Boyle
Safe As Houses by UA Fanthorpe
The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney
Cabaret McGonagall by WN Herbert
1995
Winner
Ghost Train by Sean O'Brien

Shortlist
The Dead Sea Poems by Simon Armitage
The Stinking Rose by Sujata Bhatt
Ends and Beginnings by Iain Crichton Smith
No Truce with the Furies by RS Thomas
1994
Winner
Harm by Alan Jenkins

Shortlist
In a Time of Violence by Eavan Boland
The Handless Maiden by Vicki Feaver
The Queen of Sheba by Kathleen Jamie
Metamorphoses, Book VI, l.313-81 by Paul Muldoon
The Annals of Chile by Paul Muldoon
Winners
1993
Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy

1992
The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn